Photo courtesy of Mike OdendahlKevin Strom and Shawn Brady will be among those performing at the Ale House Friday night as part of the Gord Downie Tribute Show.

Shawn Brady’s fondest memories from his days at Queen’s University usually revolved around a Tragically Hip song.

“It’s what we listened to all of the time,” said Brady, who studied here from 1995 to ’99.

The physiotherapy grad, who is now working at a hospital in Toronto, is also a musician. He considers the Hip, and frontman Gord Downie in particular, as influences on his musical career.

“I wrote a song back in the fall, shortly after Gord passed away, as a tribute to him and all that he gave to Canadian music and the great memory,” he said, who was also moved by Downie’s activism.

That song was “Pretty Painted Poet” — he refers to those university days in its lyrics — the proceeds from which are being donated to the Downie-Wenjack Fund.

So when he heard through social media about a tribute show to Gord Downie was being organized, he reached out to CKWS’ Bill Welychka to connect him to the organizer, which he did.

“The least I can do is perform for free and help to raise some money to benefit some great causes,” Brady explained.

Now Brady and his band, Neon Nostalgic, will be the headliners of the event, which is being held at the Ale House on Friday evening.

Also on the bill will be Kingston musicians Smitty, Shannon Monk Payne, Donna Lynn, Tim Aylsworth, Tracy Drinka, Jordy Jackson, John Torres, Yessica & Carlos, and the Bon Evans Band + Dave Bull. Welychka will serve as emcee for the event, which gets underway at 6 p.m. (doors at 5).

There will also be a silent auction at the Ontario Street pub, with $15,000 worth of items to be bid upon, including a Fender bass signed by the Hip’s Paul Langlois.

The money raised from the tribute show will be split among four groups: the Downie-Wenjack Fund, the Kingston Thunder Women’s Group (part of the Ontario Native Women’s Association), the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research (Sunnybrook Hospital), and the Queen’s Cancer Research Institute.

Brady described Neon Nostalgic as a “live band video dance party”: the band plays in sync with the music videos playing in the background. Brady, who has released two solo records, and his bandmates will play a set of Hip covers, as well as “Pretty Painted Poet” and some originals.

Brady, who has played in Kingston a few times, is very familiar with the Ale House, or AJ’s Hangar, as it was known when he went to school here.

“I was kicked out of there when I was 19,” Brady laughed over the phone from Toronto, where he now lives.

He stood on a table, trying to grab a pair of boxing gloves that were hanging on the wall. Before he could reach them, he felt a bouncer’s hand on his shoulder and was asked to leave.

“I went home, put on a wig and a hat, and changed my T-shirt, and they let me back in!” he chuckled.

The Hub venue was the place to go to see some of Canada’s biggest bands at the time.

“I remember being a student and going there to see Big Sugar, to see David Wilcox, and just being, ‘Wow, it would be great to play a place like this,’ ” reminisced Brady, who also captained the university’s cross-country and track teams while at Queen’s.